On April 23, J.P. Morgan, Non-Profit Incubator, and ACCESS Health China launched the Bright Start Project in Shanghai. More than sixty undergraduate students and twenty mentors participated in the opening ceremony. As part of the event, students attended a series of lectures on the digital health industry followed by a discussion on career opportunities in digital health. The students were also invited to participate in a design thinking workshop to learn how to develop a new digital health product using design thinking.

Both the director of the Non-Profit Incubator, Zhao Lv, and the President of J.P. Morgan Chase Bank in China, Julie Wu, spoke at the ceremony. Ms. Wu underlined the significance of the launch, indicating that the project would become a successful model for raising awareness of the digital health industry in the country. She also expressed hope that more companies would sign on to the Bright Start Project, thereby increasing the influence of the project and amplifying its positive impact on students, companies, and society overall. Currently, Brightstart Project has formal collaborations with more than ten leading companies, including Shanghai Pharm Group, Xinshulin, Pin An Health Cloud, Wonders Information, iZhaohu, Chunyu Doctor, and Baidu.

Mr. Lv shined a spotlight on the undergraduate students from second and third tier universities who are participating in the Bright Start Project. He believes that students in these “non key” universities, as they are called in China, need more resources to support their career development. Bright Start provides that extra support.

ACCESS Health China Director of Operations, Linguo Li, also spoke at the event. ACCESS Health leads networking and knowledge within the Bright Start Project, acting as the bridge between companies and students. Our long term goal is to encourage development of the digital health industry in China. As part of the project, we are working with senior executives from leading companies in digital health to develop a massive open online course on digital health. We also tailor training for Bright Start students to position them for possible internship opportunities with participating companies.